← Nouns Cooking · Greek

Ingredients

• 400 ml Water
• 350 g Sugar
• 1 Cinnamon stick (optional)
• 450 g filo pastry, thawed
• 4 Eggs
• 200 g caster sugar
• 200 g Greek yogurt
• 250 ml sunflower or light olive oil
• 250 ml fresh orange juice
• 2 oranges, zest only (peel a strip for the syrup too)
• 1 tbsp Baking powder
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract

Method

1. Make the syrup first so it can cool: boil the water, sugar, cinnamon and a strip of orange peel for 5 min, then set aside to cool completely.
2. Heat the oven to 120°C (100°C fan, 250°F). Tear the filo into rough pieces, spread them over two trays and bake for 15–20 min, turning once, until completely dry and crisp but still pale. Turn the oven up to 180°C (160°C fan, 350°F).
3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar for 2 min until frothy. Whisk in the yogurt, oil, orange juice, zest, baking powder and vanilla.
4. Crumble the dry filo into the batter in handfuls and fold it in until all the pastry is soaked. Pour into an oiled 23 × 33 cm baking dish and level the top.
5. Bake for 40–45 min until golden and a skewer in the middle comes out clean.
6. As soon as it comes out of the oven, pour the cold syrup slowly all over the hot cake. Leave to soak for at least 2 hours before cutting into squares.

Tips

• Hot cake plus cold syrup is the rule; it lets the cake soak up the syrup without going soggy.
• Serve it chilled with a spoonful of Greek yogurt or vanilla ice cream.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

My Greek Dish Dimitra's Dishes